Reflective Essay
Gritter
Period 3
This class has been an excellent experience, exposing my fellow students and me
to the reality of college writing. Unfortunately some students experienced this
in a more severe way than others, with the enforcement of citation guidelines
in the persuasive paper. I have also learned more than just the harsh realities
of not following guidelines. The grading in the class has been stiffer than it
had been in any of my other previous writing classes. This gave a feeling of what
a college class will feel like or what I must assume it will be like.
My advancement as a writer has almost come to level point. In the first semester
of this year I took Creative writing and science fiction Literature. I was forced
into enrolling in two writing classes to make up for missed credit in earlier
years. At the beginning of the year I had made a decision to work hard in both
of the classes. Science fiction literature exposed me to a side of writing that
I had not seen before. This was the side of imagination. Up until this point in
my high school career as a student all the writing I had done was either essays
or assigned writing tasks, where imagination has a diminished role. In science
fiction literature I was able to let my mind free and not worry about what I was
writing about and if it was following and guidelines for a paper. In this class
we read several books and then wrote paper that related to that specific genre
of book. Among these genres were science fiction, fantasy and horror. During the
fantasy section of the class is when I realized that writing could be more than
just a task but somewhat of a pleasure.
Creative writing was a class that helped me learn specific skills. Some skills
were point of view and how to clearly describe situations and plots. Another important
tool I gained from this class was dialogue. How to use it and how it should be
written to make sense.
With the tools I learned in this class and the enjoyment I had gotten out of science
fiction, I felt I was ready for a challenge. The challenge of course was writing
121. The class started with a fairly easy essay. I chose to write about football.
I used what I had learned in the other classes to write my paper. When I go it
back I was fairly happy with the grade. I thought of writing 121 as a test for
myself to see if I was ready for college. I passed the test for the first quarter
of the class. My most memorable assignment was the interview with a student from
the English as a second language (ESL) class. The ESL class taught me a lot about
my self and the value of school to others. For some, high school is just something
you have to get through, but for others like the ESL students I interviewed saw
school as an opportunity to excel and learn. The interview with them helped me
mature not only in school but also in the way I perceive life. They taught me
that America is indeed a special place and that I should value what I have in
America.
The persuasive writing paper was another interesting assignment. The trouble with
this assignment was that I hadn't written a true research paper before this point.
Sure they were assigned but that doesn't mean they were written. So this I saw
as an opportunity to experiment with citing sources. I believe that was the general
attitude of the class. Some of us were lazy in our citing others were unfamiliar
with the correct way to do it. I was one of those who were unfamiliar with it.
I tried my best to cite the correct way and I succeeded, through much anxiety.
When you sit in class and see and hear about people getting zeros on a paper that
could determine your grade in can be very nerve racking. But thankfully when I
got my paper back I had gotten a grade. The grade wasn't the best but never the
less it was a grade. Not only was this assignment a good experience for learning
how to write a research paper but it showed me what can happen if you don't do
your own work.
My weaknesses as a writer are evident to me. After one and a half credits this
year I have been able to judge myself thoroughly. One great weakness is organization.
My papers have little organization. Sometimes I just choose to write them and
not look at them again until they are finished. When they are done they can have
some loops and errors I them. This is an easily fixed error that I have learned
how to deal with. The answer is simple, slow down. Another error that I have seen
is in the depth of thought. While sometimes I can explain things quite well, there
are sometimes that they just don't make sense. Just like that last sentence probably
would confess some people. But I will make an attempt to explain what I mean.
When I was writing the persuasive essay I was supposed to try and sway the audience
into believing what I believed, but I assumed that the audience had already known
what I thought and used sarcasm that only a person who already believed what I
thought would understand. This was an error that I could have fixed by first persuading
them with the information and then using sarcasm to state the point. I think the
last half of the paragraph is reason enough why explanation of thought is trouble
to me.
Some of the most enjoyable moments in the class were in the readings that were
handed out. I thought that these helped me a lot understand how to write and how
some people think. The class went beyond writing and more into the thought that
was put into the writing. One of the first readings Dumpster Diving was shockingly
interesting. This showed that writing could have more than one meaning. It is
lessons like these that make reading an essential part of being a good writer.
The web folio was a project in the class that i really liked until the end. I
had spent a lot of time perfecting my web site. When I tried to upload to my web
page the computers in my row shut off. Somewhere in that process my web site was
gone. I had to rush and create a makeshift website that has no comparison to my
original. In fact at this time my page has not been uploaded to a web page. This
would have been my favorite project except for the problems i encountered. Without
these this was the most fun that I have had in school. I enjoy computers so working
with them was fun. If it hadn’t been for the web site disappearing i would
have really enjoyed it.
What I got out of this class, experience in research and reality of college, and
will prove to be valuable to me in my future. The readings in the class helped
expand my mind and perceptions of the world. When I first went to writing 121
I thought it would purely writing but it has been more than that. The reading
and experience are too valuable to replace and will serve to be something that
I can look back when I am in college.
